US-China Commission Report - Fatal System Error

89
the increasing import base. The impact is wide in scope,
ranging from a significant decline in the number of harvesters,
probably in excess of 50 percent, to a large consolidation
in the processing industry. 359
The Safety Challenge from China’s Seafood
For American consumers and some retailers, the benefits of imported
seafood—increased availability at a lower price—compete
with its health risk. Abundant and inexpensive seafood from
China, particularly frozen shrimp, has helped expand consumption
of fish in restaurants and at dinner tables around the country.
Consumers, who may have passed by the grocery store seafood case
because of high prices, are now lining up to take a number. But
as several witnesses explained at the Commission’s New Orleans
hearing, there is a downside to importing fish from China: Consumers
of fish imported from China may be jeopardizing their
health.
Farming methods in China include the use of certain chemicals
and pharmaceuticals that are banned in the United States because
they are carcinogenic or otherwise endanger the health of people
who eat them. (Greater detail on these substances is provided later
in this section.) Often these chemicals are used by farmers in
China to fight outbreaks of disease among fish that are grown in
close proximity to one another, an unsafe industry practice that
very quickly can spread such bacteria as salmonella and listeria as
well as fungal, viral, and parasitic infections.
Water used to grow farmed fish also poses a potential problem.
A third of the length of all China’s rivers and three-fourths of its
lakes are ‘‘severely polluted,’’ according to a 2007 study by the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
undertaken at China’s request. The report says that ‘‘a majority of
the water flowing through China’s urban areas is unsuitable for
drinking or fishing.’’ 360
Food & Water Watch, a Washington, DC-based environmental organization,
quotes World Health Organization figures showing that
only 48 percent of Asia has access to sewage treatment plants and
that fish farmed in waters containing untreated sewage pose a special
danger to consumers.
In China, the global leader in aquaculture, 3.7 billion tons
of sewage is discharged daily. As of 2005, only 45 percent
of China had access to sewage treatment plants. The untreated
sewage runs freely into rivers, lakes, and coastal
water, some of which are used for aquaculture production.
Furthermore, producers tightly cram thousands of finfish
and shellfish into their facilities to maximize production.
This generates large amounts of waste, contaminates the
water, and spreads disease, which can kill off entire crops
of fish if left untreated. Even if a disease does not kill off
all the fish in an aquaculture facility, remaining bacteria,
such as Vibrio, Listeria, or Salmonella, can sicken people
who eat the fish. 361